Chances are, if you’ve found yourself head-down on your keyboard, you’re probably stressing over your social media strategy. What should I post today? This takes too much time! Nothing is working! What makes it worse is that you know that a strong social media strategy is crucial to your business’ overall marketing strategy. You need it if you want to stay competitive and engage and grow your audience.
So, what can you do when you’re sacrificing your sanity for a social media strategy?
The answer: adopt some time-saving hacks that will eliminate wasted time, increase productivity, and implement a social media strategy that your audience can’t ignore.
The Importance of a Strong Social Media Strategy
Your social media strategy is part of any savvy business owner’s marketing arsenal. A strong social media strategy helps you connect with your audience, build brand loyalty, and drive traffic to your website.
But it’s also overwhelming. Stressful. Algorithmically challenging.
The constant need for content creation, posting, and engagement can become a total time-suck, especially if you’re already dealing with startup fatigue. So, how can you manage your social media effectively without burning out?
Here are seven strategies to help you save time and award yourself a “W” in your social media game.
1. Create Templates
One of the best ways to save time on social media is by creating graphic design templates. Create a series of images and carousels to guide future posts.
Design each image or carousel according to types of posts you often publish (i.e. 5 Tips for ____, Top 10 Ways to ____, How to Complete ____). Format the text, icons, and other graphic elements. Once you have your templates, updating them with new content becomes a breeze.
This speeds up the design process and ensures consistency in your branding. We recommend designing new templates every 6 months or so, to keep your content fresh.
2. Learn Shortcuts on Canva
Canva is a fantastic tool for non-designers, and learning its shortcuts can save you loads of time.
Stop wasting time trying to adjust even formatting, change colors across multiple pages, or add elements. Spend time exploring the platform and learning its shortcuts and features; doing so will earn you time later. Plus, you can save your brand colors, fonts, and logos for easy access, saving you even more time in the future.
3. Use an Automated Scheduling Tool
Automated scheduling tools like Meta Business Suite, Hootsuite, Buffer, or Later can be lifesavers when it comes to managing your social media. These tools allow you to plan and schedule your posts in advance, freeing up your time to focus on other aspects of your business.
You can batch-create content for the week or even the month, and then schedule it to go live at optimal times. This ensures your social media accounts stay active and engaging without requiring daily attention.
4. Batch Your Content Creation
Batching is a common productivity hack that can significantly reduce the time you spend on social media. You can optimize this strategy by using a productivity planner to help you get organized, or a productivity time hack, like the Pomodoro Technique to improve your focus.
Set aside specific times to plan for and create social media content. Designate weekly times or even monthly times. During these sessions, write captions, design graphics, and schedule your posts. Turn off distractions to help you stay focused, and stick to your designated time to avoid burnout.
This will help you get more done in less time, and you’ll ease the mental load of constantly switching between tasks.
5. Repurpose Content
Newsflash! The wheel has already been invented, and it WORKS. Don’t try to reinvent it! (Not literally, and not metaphorically.)
Repurposing content is a smart way to make the most of your efforts. You improve your focus, stay on brand, and eliminate wasted time thinking up brand-spanking-new ideas. One good idea can generate another 5 wonderful “sub” ideas.
For example, a blog post can be broken down into several social media posts. A webinar can be clipped into short videos for Instagram or Facebook. Repurposing not only saves time but also reinforces your message across different platforms.
6. Engage Smartly
Engagement is key to a successful social media strategy, but it can also be a major time drain. To engage smartly, set aside specific times each day to respond to comments, messages, and mentions. This could even be part of the time you designate to content creation, keeping you focused on social media before you move on to other important tasks throughout the day.
Engaging during self-prescribed times prevents you from constantly checking your social media and getting distracted. (By the way, unless you get a lot of super time-sensitive alerts, it’s okay to turn off instant notifications on your phone. You can address notifications during your self-prescribed time for social media.)
7. Curate Content
Not all of your social media content has to be original. Curating content from other sources can provide value to your audience and save you time. So what exactly does this mean?
You can share industry news, tips from experts, or user-generated content. Doing so shows that you’re in tune with your industry and provides your followers with valuable information, without the need to create everything from scratch. Plus, you give a boost to your professional credibility and authority.
The Best Way to Build a Strong Social Media Strategy
We highly recommend any business owner to give those seven strategies a try. Many of you will probably notice a difference within a few weeks, and some might feel like their day to day business tasks are totally transformed!
Still, as you continue to grow, there will likely be a point when you realized it’s not worth it or wise to continue managing social media on your own. Hiring experts in social media marketing is one of the smartest investments made by many business owners just like you.
Why?
Because when they hire a team to manage and maintain a strong social media strategy, they have approximately 25 additional open hours every month! And that leads to improved productivity and increased revenue.
Want to learn more about what expert social media marketing services looks like? Contact us today, and let’s discuss!
